Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

Pepsi Co
Pepsi co, Pepsi co,
When will we go to Mexico?
Never, never

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60 Children’s 
Folklore
Because we don’t have money.
Who has money
Bathes in the sea;
Who doesn’t have it
At home in a wash pan.
Folklorist Richard March collected this rhyme while watching girls play 
gumi-gumi
(generally called Elastics or Chinese jump rope in English-speaking countries) in 
a parking lot in Velika Gorika, Croatia, in the spring of 1978; he translated the 
rhyme from Croatian to English.
This rhyme’s content shows a sharp awareness of class distinctions. The girls, 
residents of a working-class suburb of Zagreb, knew that their families did not 
have enough money for lavish trips to the beach or to other countries. Jumping 
rope with a two-meter-long piece of elastic fastened to their ankles, calves, knees, 
or waists, they expressed their understanding of economics.
Gypsy, Gypsy
Gypsy, gypsy, please tell me
What my husband is going to be
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief,
Butcher, baker, candlestick maker,
Tinker, tailor, cowboy, sailor
Utah State University student Kathleen Hamby, age 20, recited this jump-rope 
rhyme to student collector Jan Taggert in the spring of 1982.
Variants of this rhyme, documented in Abrahams’s 
Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Dic-
tionary
(168– 69), show how common it was for twentieth-century girls to guess 
a future husband’s occupation. If a girl missed a skip, her last word indicated the 
occupation of her husband-to-be. Kathleen Hamby told her friend Jan Taggert 
that she and her friends would “just die” if they landed on either “poor man” or 
“Indian chief.” Although the rhyme is playful, disrespect for Native Americans 
and hope for an affluent lifestyle come through.
If I Dare
Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper,
If I dare, I can do better
Who says no ‘cos hens don’t crow
Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper
Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper
I wanna be great

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Examples and Texts 61
A hot shot lawyer
A famous dancer
A tough operator
Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper
Dan Jones collected this rhyme from Louise at the Vietnamese Community Cen-
tre in East London. This rhyme and others inspired Jones’s large painting “The 
Singing Playground,” created at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood 
in London in 2004. The museum’s Web site “The Singing Playground” includes 
rhyme transcripts and sound recordings, as well as a photograph of the painting. 
Lady Alice Gomme collected a version of this jump-rope rhyme in 1898 (2: 204), 
and many other versions have emerged since then (Abrahams 175–76).
Autograph Rhymes